Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) emitting at 850 nm have been widely and rapidly adopted into Gigabit Ethernet and other applications. Short wavelength VCSELs are particularly suitable for multi-mode optical fiber local area networks due to their reliability, reduced threshold current, circular output beam, and inexpensive and high volume manufacture. However, there is strong interest in developing VCSELs that emit at long wavelengths, such as in the 1240 nm to 1600 nm regime. VCSELs that emit at 1.3 μm, for example, may be used to leverage high bandwidth single mode fiber that is often already installed as well as to operate at the dispersion minimum of silica optical fiber.